today's AMAZING TV AD : honda's "cog" 2 minute tv spot

for more on this, go to this post : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/cog-honda-tv-spot-another-amazing-ad.html; april 14 post.
the inspiration is mount pinatubo when some years ago, all of a sudden, after decades of being dormant, it decided to erupt, spewing debris and ash several kilometers high, blowing ashes to float everywhere, far and wide, turning the skies gloomy gray as far away as metro manila, hundreds of kilometers away, covering metro manila streets and rooftops with thick ash. the pinatubo eruption was so powerful that its ashes changed the color of sunsets not only in the philippines but also worldwide.

that's what happens when clients and advertising agencies decide to run ads not worthy to be called advertising. its dark, its huge and very irritating and unfortunately, everywhere!

all they are doing is wawam! what a waste of advertising money!

here is a first row view of Philippine Advertising and Philippine Marketing.

mount pinatubo erupts shooting ashes several kilometers high, then floating to blanket many other towns hundreds of kilometers away

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Friday, September 19, 2008

3rd microsoft tv ad, "i'm a pc" - tells us what we already know, restoring pride in windows

what we do know is that jerry seinfeld is in the first 2 microsoft tv ads. the first two suffered from ADS Sindrome, so we were looking forward to the third one. we told ourselves forget the past, move on and wait for the third one. after failing twice, we were expecting microsoft will come out with a great ad with seinfeld, finally!

what we didn't know, something that we just found out now, is that seinfeld will no longer be in the microsoft ad. well, at least in this third one. with a $300M ad budget, there cane be a gazillion more tv ads coming our way.

with seinfeld not in the ad, we know this ad is not about humor. what it did was tell us something we already know - that a gazillion people already use microsoft windows. and as the ad showed, we knew these gazillion people are of different shapes and sizes, including shoe sizes. oh, wait a minute that is the 1st ad. when i meant was eye glasses.

the other part we know, actually what this 3rd ad confirms is that microsoft's new ad campaign IS A direct answer to the apple ads. this 3rd ad opens with a look-alike of the pc character in the apple tv spot.

ads that tell us something we already know are not really bad or weak ads. it's not the ideal, they are not just as potent and hardly an agent of attitude change. we were assuming that microsoft embarked on a $300M ad campaign primarily to change attitudes of consumers towards windows. windows has suffered massive declines in brand image with the endless problems with vista plus the relentless picking on done by apple's tv ads that poured salt into microsoft vista's open wounds.

having to say what we already know about windows may not be the most ideal weapon to change consumer attitudes towards a declining brand image, but what this ad does is it tries to restore pride in the windows name. seeing all those people, someone just like us and seeing many others better or worse than us does that.

i think the main point of this ad is that - to restore pride in the windows brand name. and that can be a good thing.

given the things microsoft's marketing heads have been saying about their ad campaign, they seem to do things in a very slow manner, involving multi-level, multi-stage, chapter by chapter approach to brand image reshaping.

that's how they explained the first ad. they said the ad was meant to be like an intro or a teaser where all they wanted to do was to get people to start talking about microsoft again. they were saying - yah, we know the first two ads are boring, but hey, we got you thinking and talking about it. wait for the third one! at least that is what they want us to believe.

this 3rd ad could be employing the same multi-stage strategy. it's saying what we already know, it's just restoring pride and that sets the stage for the real thing for the 4th ad --- an agent of change that will improve the sagging brand image of windows.

can't wait for the 4th ad! (there you go, i'm once again waiting for the next great microsoft ad!)



read more posts on this microsoft and apple ads here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/i%20am%20mac%20i%20am%20pc


source of picture : http://i.usatoday.net/money/_photos/2008/09/19/microx.jpg
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2008 at 6:48 AM

    i dont think this is significantly better than the first 2

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2008 at 10:21 AM

    another boring microsoft ad

    ReplyDelete

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